Gourt Home::Gourt :: Rocket Racing League
The Rocket Racing League is a proposed racing league that would use rocket powered aircraft. The formation of the league was announced by Peter Diamandis, founder of the Ansari X-Prize, on October 3, 2005, in partnership with the Reno Air Races. According to Diamandis, the purpose of the league is to "inspire people of all ages to once again look up into the sky and find inspiration and excitement."
Background
Projected to be an hour in length, the races would be between proposed X-racer planes that would use liquid oxygen/kerosene fuel with a burn time of four minutes. The planes, produced by XCOR Aerospace, are expected to cost less than US$1 million each. The design will be loosely based on the XCOR EZ-Rocket, which is in turn a modified Rutan Long-EZ. The specific airframe announced is the Velocity Long-EZ derivative using a new rocket engine from XCOR, based on existing test engines. The RRL has been called "NASCAR with rockets", and draws heavily on experience from the car racing world. RRL CEO Grainger Whitelaw is a venture capitalist and former IndyCar Racing League team owner.
While still in the planning stages, a X-Racer debut is tentatively scheduled for October 2006, with league competition starting in 2007. If league competition begins, Diamandis indicated tournament semifinals would be held each September in Nevada, with finals each October in New Mexico at the X Prize Cup competing for a $2 million championship purse.
Races would take place on a race course two miles long, one mile wide, and 5000 feet in the air. A typical race would take about one hour, and fans would be able to see multiple camera views, including cockpit, "on-track," "side-by-side" and wing-angle views.
Additionally, a computer game is planned which will interface with racer position data in real time over the internet, allowing players to virtually compete with the rocket pilots.
The Track
A typical Rocket Race begins with a staggered start. Pilots take off in pairs a few minutes apart, they will be competing against the clock but will maneuver around each other much like NASCAR. The pilots will be guided by a virtual three-dimensional "track" projected in their heads-up display. Each racer will have a separate track to follow but the courses will be close together to build the excitement.
Teams
The first team in the Rocket Racing League was announced on January 30, 2006. Leading Edge Rocket Racing, co-founded by F-16 pilots Robert "Bobaloo" Rickard and Don A. "Dagger" Grantham, Jr. will take possession of their Mark-1 X-Racer later this year.
Predecessors
As noted above, XCOR Aerospace has been flying its XCOR EZ-Rocket rocketplane for several years.
Another attempt to do rocketplane demonstration flying was initiated by Ed Wright circa 2002 when he purchased a surplus Russian MiG-21 jet fighter intending to convert it to rocket power. Though he has formed X-Rocket corporation and is operating high altitude flights with the jet, the rocket conversion has not happened to date.
See also
Commercialization of space
External links
- Rocket Racing League
- Rocket Racing Fans
- Rocket Racing Forums and Wiki
- XCOR page on RRL
- Leading Edge Rocket Racing - First Rocket Racing team
- Rocket Racing League announces first team (January 30, 2006)
- ‘Rocket racing league’ gets its start (MSNBC, Oct. 3, 2005)
- Sci-fi to sky high: rocket racers set to leave Formula One in the pits (The Times, Oct. 5, 2005)
- Team Started! (Yahoo, Jan. 30, 2006)
- NASCAR in the Clouds (Wired, February 2, 2006)
- Images of XCOR Flight-Testing Rocket Racer Airframe (February 15, 2006)
- X-Racers, Start Your Rockets! (Popular Science cover article, February 2006)
"Rocket Racing League"